State of the Sierra Nevada’s Forests Report

From Bad To Worse

When the first State of the Sierra Nevada’s Forests report was released in 2014, conditions in the Sierra Nevada appeared to be at their worst. The Region had just experienced its largest fire in recorded history, the 2013 Rim Fire, and the trend toward larger, more severe wildfires in Sierra Forests was already clear. Restoration efforts in the Sierra were grossly out of pace with what was needed, and overgrown forests were starting to show signs of stress from only two years of drought. When the 2014 report was released, tree mortality wasn’t even mentioned.

The current conditions and the resulting impacts to California are significant, and this update to the State of the Sierra Nevada’s Forests report revisits the variety of critical benefits that are being lost.

While the conditions have worsened, the proposed solutions remain the same—restoring our forests and watersheds to health and resilience—only with a higher degree of urgency. It will take a renewed commitment at the state, federal, and local levels. The alternative of the status quo is simply not acceptable.